Thursday, January 18, 2007

An Introduction to Cosmic Blobs


How many times do you find the perfect blend of fun and learning? It's a rare combination. It's especially rare to find this combination in a software application that is beautifully designed. Cosmic Blobs IS that rare combination.

There is so much to like about Cosmic Blobs. But, like any program, to get the full benefit of all it has to offer we need to learn some new skills. And, the quicker we learn those skills the faster we can begin to fully enjoy all that CosmicBlobs can do. That's why this blog exists... to provide a place for sharing tips, ideas and tutorials.

We will be posting a full series of user created tutorials. They won't be slick. They aren't official... becuase we have no connection, except as users, to Solidworks or the Cosmic Blobs development team. We may even get some things a bit wrong from time-to-time. These offerings are simply home-brewed video captures of some of the things we've discovered as we've worked with Cosmic Blobs that we think might be helpful to others. We hope you agree.

We have already created four tutorials covering a few of the basics of Cosmic Blobs. Almost everything in these tutorials also applies to CB Model Pro. Each is around 3-4 minutes in length.

Tutorial #1 - The Cosmic Blobs Help System

Learning how to take full advantage of the Cosmic Blobs Help system will go a long way to ensure that your learning experience goes smoothly and quickly. Not only has the CosmicBlobs team provided a unique Step-By-Step context sensitive help system, they've included some very helpful links to their own online tutorials and lessons right in the Cosmic Blobs application. We'll also show you how to bring back the Koala Bear lesson that cam up the first time you started Cosmic Blobs.

Play Tutorial #1 - The CosmicBlobs Help System

Tutorial #2 - The Cosmic Blobs File System

The saving of your blob files is done automatically in Cosmic Blobs. In this tutorial we show you how this works and also tell you why using the 'Copy' feature is sometimes wise.

Play Tutorial #2 - The CosmicBlobs File System


Tutorial #3 - The Cosmic Blobs Undo/Redo Feature

Cosmic Blobs' almost unlimited Undo and Redo keep us from having to worry that we will get into major trouble while experimenting with our blobs. We'll show you one important exception.

Play Tutorial #3 - The CosmicBlobs Undo/Redo Feature

Tutorial #4 - Moving and Rotating Cosmic Blobs blobs

In Cosmic Blobs, we deal with moving and rotating on two levels... the Cosmic Blobs' "World" and individual blobs. In this tutorial we'll show you all the Cosmic Blobs controls for moving and rotating at both of these levels. We'll also show you how to more precisely line up blobs when things go out of kilter.

There are two tutorials related to moving and rotating blobs. After the first was finished, we discovered a cool trick using the 'Mirror' tool to help us lock blobs, so that they turn on a single axis, making our rotations even more precise!

Play Tutorial #4 - Moving and Rotating CosmicBlobs blobs
Play Tutorial #4a - Using Mirror to Rotate More Precisely

We hope that you find all of these tutorials useful... in spite of the occasional background noises from the squeeky chair. Hey! They're FREE!

Monday, January 8, 2007

Blobs! More fun than you can imagine!


Do you like art? Do you like animation?

Then this is your lucky day becuase we're going Blobbing!

What's a Blob?

A lump of virtual clay. It just sits there until YOU do something with it. You push it, pull it and twist it into anything you want. Then, sometimes, you animate it!

How?

We were hoping you would ask.

We can begin by using a wonderful program called Cosmic Blobs. It's a 3D modeling program for children (and grandfathers using their grandchildren as an excuse) that is absolutely marvelous! And, the best part is that it is very reasonably priced... at the time of this writing just $39!

That is a REAL bargain.

But, it gets even better than that. There is an 'Upgrade Path' for Blobbers. Solidworks, the company that created Cosmic Blobs is also developing CB Model Pro with additional capabilities for those wanting to extend their blobbing skills.

You can download a 14 day trial of Cosmic Blobs at http://www.cosmicblobs.com/ and begin right away!

We don't work for Solidworks or The Learning Company. We're just Blobs Fans that enjoy creating 3D objects and animation. Our hope is that we'll all have a great time and share some wonderfully creative ideas, images and videos. Let's get to it!